I have been photographing the Alps‘ passes since 2008. Now this body of work has come together in the book Passbilder – Landschaften der Alpenpässe.

The history of the Alps is also a history of traffic routes. Without them colonization and development would have been impossible. Man has crossed the Alps for trade, culture, worship and war. In the early days, crossing the Alps happened on basic paths used by horses and pack mules. Then first major roads would serve as mountain passes, followed by multi-lane motorways and today’s gigantic tunnel projects.

„You can not look at traffic routes only in their geographical context. You have to consider their cultural environment as well. On the one hand, it is thanks to them that living in the Alps became possible in the first place. On the other hand, they are essential to any kind of trade and they promote cultural exchange.“ (Eugen Hüsler).

The photographs in this book depict nearly 80 of the Alps‘ most important routes, from roman roads to medieval bridle paths to the fascinating mountain passes of the 19th and 20th century. The photographs illustrate the changing landscape as well as the essence of each pass: Its portrait, its „Passbild“.

The German term „Passbild“ usually refer to a person’s photo in a passport. I have used it as a wordplay on the „pass“ of a mountain range and the idea of photographing its essence, equating it with a „portrait“.

I photographed the first mountain pass for this book in 2008, while working on a report for Stern magazine about the cultural and climatic changes in the Alps. I saw an upside-down view of a freshly paved road winding its way over the top of the Stelvio Pass (reminding me of a toy race track) on the focusing screen of the Linhof large format camera. I realized that this was going to be a bigger project.It lasted until 2015, when the present book was published.

The book was published in 2015 together with the author and alpine expert Eugen E. Hüsler and has since published in several editions. The texts on the Alpine passes are absolutely worth reading, exciting and informative.You are very welcome to order a signed book and if you like, I can write a dedication to the book.